Jayson Tatum scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter as the visiting Boston Celtics defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 108-100 on Friday in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.
Jaylen Brown matched Tatum with 25 points, while Payton Pritchard added 15 points for the second-seeded Celtics, who lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. Derrick White and Nikola Vucevic each chipped in 11 points for Boston.
“We just made the right plays to win, on both ends of the floor,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “… (The Sixers) are pushing us. We have to push them. Usually, competition brings out the best in people, and you’re also in two great environments. … You’re just throwing haymakers at each other.”
Tyrese Maxey scored 31 points on 12-of-31 shooting for the seventh-seeded Sixers, who will attempt to even the series Sunday night when the teams reconvene back in South Philly.
Paul George (18 points) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (17) also made key contributions for the hosts, while VJ Edgecombe pitched in with 10 points but shot just 5 of 17, including 0 of 7 from long range. Edgecombe grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
“It’s a competitive series,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “I thought we played extremely, extremely hard. I thought we made a few mistakes that you just can’t make in these games. … But I liked the way we competed.”
Early in the third quarter, the Sixers embarked on a 12-0 run to turn a 64-55 deficit into a three-point lead. The Celtics regained the advantage shortly thereafter and went on to lead 79-74 after three quarters, thanks to two 3-pointers by Pritchard late in the session.
Philadelphia trailed 84-80 early in the fourth before Maxey made a tough fadeaway and a 3-pointer to put the Sixers ahead by a point.
However, the visitors responded with eight straight points. Brown found White for a layup before scoring the final four points of the burst, guiding Boston to a 92-85 edge with 5:39 remaining.
George and Andre Drummond helped bring the Sixers within 97-96 with 2:19 left, but Tatum answered with a 3-pointer. Following another Philadelphia bucket, Pritchard drained a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer to make it 103-98 with 1:17 to go.
Philadelphia again made it a one-possession game, but Tatum swished a long 3-pointer with 26.6 seconds left to punctuate his dynamic performance.
Boston made seven 3-pointers in the first quarter en route to a 29-24 lead after 12 minutes.
The Celtics went ahead by double digits early in the second quarter as Baylor Scheierman’s 3-pointer made it 41-31. The Sixers chipped away and got within 47-45 with two minutes left in the half before Boston made a mini-push to bring a 54-47 lead into the locker room.
–Field Level Media
